January 27, 2013-Back Pain in English Harbor

wingssail images-judy jensen
English Harbor, Antigua.

After Fort De France we sailed up the coast of Martinique to St. Pierre, a delightful village but located in the risky position of being at the base of the Mt. Pele volcano. (Mt Pele has already destroyed St Pierre once, in 1902, with the loss of the lives of 30,000 inhabitants, but Mt Pele is quiet now.) It is a scenic setting and we enjoyed the town but my back had been bothering me; I wanted to go somewhere that I could rest up for a few days. We needed a bullet proof anchorage and St. Pierre was an open roadstead. The next morning we weighed and headed north. We sailed all day past Dominica and Guadeloupe and pushed through to Antigua and 24 hours later were anchored snuggly in English Harbor, long a goal of mine to visit, but not without some difficulty. Sailing with a bad back isn’t fun and I am sure I made it worse.

We went to the doctor and got some meds and settled down in English Harbor to rest up. Then I was careless handling some heavy lines and the back injury got worse, much worse. Operating a sailboat is tough on the body. Handling dock lines isn’t any better. As a consequence I was flat on my back with excruciating leg and hip pain for five days. This is undoubtedly a pinched nerve in my spine, probably from some sort of lumbar disk problem but it is hard to assess without diagnostics like MRI’s and the such, which we have not had done. You wouldn’t believe how many painkillers I was taking.

But there was a big race going on here, the Antigua Super Yacht Challenge. The smallest boats are over 100 feet and the really big ones, well, they are huge. For two days of this three day event I was in my bunk when they went out racing literally unable to move and I felt like I was missing out on something spectacular. But by the end of day two of the racing, my fifth day flat on my back, I started to feel a little better. I got up and moved around. It didn’t hurt, much. I made a call and got invited to sail on one of the boats as a photographer for day three. Now if my back would hold out…

Judy says I was stupid for even considering it and for sure she was right but I went for a short walk around the harbor looking at all the boats. It was a test and I passed; my back could hold up for a 30 minute walk.

So, on Sunday, I showed up at the yacht Marmara for the docking out at 10:00 with a bag of camera gear and a pocket full of oxycodone. Could I make it hoping around the decks of a super yacht for three hours with a marginal back?

I did, the sailing was great, and I got a lot of good shots. Hang on for a few days and I’ll have the photos posted.

My Back? Well, you know, the next day we made a trip to the supermarket and that was harder.

Click here For more images from St Pierre and Antigua.

Sorry! No photos of the patient.

Hang loose for a few days and we'll post photos of the Antigua super Yacht Challenge

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Antigua

January 14, 2013-Magnificent Sailing to Magnificent Martinique

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Judy Chases Competition

Another magnificent day of sailing and, now, Martinique, another magnificent Caribbean island.

From St Lucia we sailed hard to Martinique, keeping a sharp eye on the other five boats which set out at the same we did. We were racing, unofficially. Maybe the others didn’t know it but I did. The sailing was great: sunshine, nice breeze, warm water, and competition. What more can you ask for? Of the five boats out there, one turned back, one beat us, and we put the other three away. The boat that beat us probably would not have if handicaps were applied but it was hard to tell for sure since he dropped his sails and turned on the motor for the last two miles. We sailed the whole distance. It was good.

Le Marin, Martinique: Nowhere have we seen so many parked sailboats. This place is huge. Judy said she loved the anchorage which means it was calm. Me too; bulletproof, just the way I like it.

Checking in was quick, about three minutes, then we found out we're in France! I thought this was the Caribbean, but no, Martinique is part of France, it is actually a department of France, which sort of explained all the French people and Peugeot cars.

Then we went to the bar and ran into Nacho and Ana. Well, they were happy to see us and tried to be polite, but since France is nearly Spain, and they are Spanish, their phones, Ipads, and pocket calculators were all lit up and they were deeply involved with things electronic. Ana was having a skype chat with her sister and Natcho was working his way through 39 emails, about 15 of which concerned his boat in Palma which was being sold and he dearly wanted to get to the bottom of that. But we came to Martinique to buy good French wine at a great price, so we said "caio" and went to the supermarche. Good Bordeaux wine is about $2.80 a bottle; we bought 41 bottles. Mission accomplished.

Yole Racing in Martinique

Saturday we had a great dinner with Jacques and Edith, who were planning to go roller-blading on Sunday but no way can we keep up with Edith’s high energy, so we photographed a local sailing boat race instead, and Monday we’ll do some more shopping before heading off to the capitol, Fort Du France.

And when I wake up from my nap on the settee trying to remember what country we are in… Oh yeah, France.

Click here for more shots of our sail to Martinique

Click here for more Yole regatta shots

Click here to see Fort De France

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Martinique